Brothers Johnson
Syl Johnson & Jimmy Johnson – Two Johnsons Are Better Than OneEvidence – ECD 26122-2CD, Album, USA & Canada, 2002
A quick post, but after talking to R a couple days ago I realized I should share this one. Chicago lost two of our unsung musical treasures last week. Tragically, the losses came just a few days apart from the same family when soul singer Syl Johnson followed his big brother, blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson, in passing. Jimmy was 93 and Sylvester (who is also the father of R&B singer Syleena Johnson) was 85.
Jimmy was under appreciated, slugging away working the Chicago blues circuit for decades. He had backed other artists on guitar, but I'm pretty sure he was 50 or so before putting out an album under his own name. Syl was best known for the great soul sides he had cut in the late 60s and early 70s for Twinight here in Chicago and, later, Hi Records in Memphis. He kept recording blues and soul records for smaller labels into the 1990s, but his later day career saw a boost as his older songs turned up as hip hop samples, particularly in some classic RZA productions (such as the Different Strokes breakbeat in this track and his use of the remarkable Is It Because I'm Black in this Wu-Tang track a few years later). This helped open the door to Chicago's Numero Group releasing a massive anthology of his recordings in 2010. That and various reissue campaigns since have helped finally give Syl Johnson a bit of the shine that he long deserved.
With both Syl and Jimmy Johnson passing away, I wanted to share this 2002 CD that the brothers had recorded together. It's was recorded years after the greatest records by either brother, but it's still a joy listening to the brothers making this music together. Syl sings and Jimmy plays guitar, occasionally swapping duties as they run through some originals, some covers and a few of their own classic tracks. It's neither's greatest album, but worth playing through and enjoying the range of styles they run through.
The jokes of the opening title track gives way not just to some fun classic Chicago blues, but a trio of message songs near the center of the album. If this recording of Is It Because I'm Black lacks the heavy, end of the world atmosphere of the original, Jimmy Johnson's guitar helps give it a new twist, responding to the realization and question that his brother sings to him. Syl's If I Wuz White follows then, almost like an answer to the two questions his younger brother had just posed, they play Jimmy's I Feel The Pain about the history and legacy of the Middle Passage.
And don't roll your eyes too hard at the track about Oprah... Yes, they basically make the talk show queen sound like a super hero and it may be that they are just a little too generous with the praise they pile on her (remember to have me tell you about my visit to the Oprah show some time!), but you've got to remember that this is Chicago. I've got twenty odd years now of being part of trainings for Chicago organizers where we always run an exercise about "power." The class is asked "who has power?" and has to list off real world examples. Along with the billionaires and bosses, the Mayor Daleys and Rahms, the media and corporations, I just recently experienced my first times that I didn't hear a group of Chicagoans add Oprah onto the pile. So maybe it's a generational thing at this point as more years pass since the height of her show, but really, it was a thing. As goofy as it sounds, the Oprah track actually had me grinning over the Chicago-ness of it.
I hope you enjoy (and find yourself chasing down some more Jimmy Johnson and Syl Johnson music).
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Tracklist
1 Two Johnsons Are Better Than One
2 Uncomplicated Life
3 I Used To Be A Millionaire
4 Is It Because I'm Black
5 If I Wuz White
6 I Feel The Pain
7 Oprah
8 Ashes In The Ashtray
9 Dangerous
10 Let Her Go
11 Living The Life
12 I Can't Survive
13 Goodie Goodie Goodtime
14 Bottoms Up
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